He said “strong measures (would be implemented) so that such an event will never be repeated in Senegal,” speaking to the AFP by phone.

The country has suspended all sporting and cultural events for the remainder of July, while the president of the Senegalese league, Saer Seck, defended the security forces on duty during the incident.

ESPN reported that Seck said: “On the security side, we took all precautions initially in separating the two groups of supporters to neutralise them.

“We hired agents of the security forces in their numbers, and now there were fights and a collapse.”

“(It’s) a great sadness for all of Senegalese football,” Seck added.

“I present my condolences to the families of all of the victims that we were unable to revive. This is not my conception of football.”

Cheikh Maba Diop, whose friend died in the incident and who helped move people out of the stadium, told AFP: “All of a sudden when the wall fell… we knew exactly that some of our own had lost their lives because the wall fell directly on to people.”

BBC Africa’s James Copnall said that the stadium itself was in need of repairs and that a government enquiry will look into the causes.

While stadium operators may often consider the dangers of fans entering the field of play, officials at Hambantota Stadium in Sri Lanka are taking steps to prevent elephants from straying onto the pitch during the country’s forthcoming ODI cricket series with Zimbabwe.

Game wardens will be on hand to deter the residents of the nearby elephant sanctuary from trespassing at the 35,000-capacity stadium.

The stadium was built in 2009, in an area of Sri Lanka badly affected by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, but has hosted only a handful of matches because of its remote location and high maintenance costs.

Police in Malawi have confirmed that eight people have died after a stampede at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.

The crush, which also left dozens injured, took place before an exhibition friendly match between top Malawian sides Nyasa Big Bullets and Silver Strikers.

According to the BBC, gates to the stadium had been due to open at 6:30am local time to allow free entry of fans into the 40,000-capacity venue, but this process was delayed by approximately three hours.

However, thousands of supporters had already arrived at the stadium and some attempted to force their way. Police responded by firing tear gas at the crowds in an effort to deter people from pushing forward.

Although the exact number of those injured in the crush is still unclear, Inspector General of Police, Lexan Kachama, told the Reuters news agency that he expected the total number of causalities to increase.

Despite the incident, officials decided to go ahead with the match and the Nyasa Big Bullets went on to win 2-1 in front of a packed crowd at the stadium.

However, President Peter Mutharika, who had been due to attend the match, was not present.

Speaking in the aftermath of the tragedy, Mutharika offered his condolences to those affected and said that the Malawi government will do all it can to help the families of those who were killed or injured in the crush.